Alabama goes cold in second half, falls to No. 1 seed Michigan in Sweet 16
By Andrew Olson
Published:
Alabama’s 2025-26 season has come to an end. The No. 4 seed Crimson Tide fell 90-77 to No. 1 seed Michigan in the Sweet 16 on Friday night in Chicago.
It was a tale of two halves for Nate Oats’ team. Alabama went to the locker room leading 49-47 after a high-scoring track meet of a first half. The Crimson Tide, though, couldn’t keep it up. UA put up just 28 points in the second half, its lowest-scoring half of the season, allowing Michigan to pull away for a double-digit victory.
Labaron Philon did his best to carry Alabama in the upset effort. He led all scorers with 35 points, starting off with 19 in the first half and adding 16 in the second half.
Though Philon managed to keep scoring in the second half, the Wolverines figured out the rest of the Crimson Tide. Latrell Wrightsell was next with 5 second-half points. He shot just 2-of-8 from the field in the second half, including a rough 1-of-7 from 3-point range.
As expected, Alabama turned to the 3-ball early and often. In the first half, UA was 9-of-24 from beyond the arc while Michigan kept pace by going 8-of-15. The Tide were just 5-of-23 from 3-point range in the second half, while Michigan also made 5 more 3s, on 11 fewer attempts (12).
Alabama finished shooting just 25-of-69 in the game (36%). The Crimson Tide launched 47 3-point attempts, making just 14 (30%). Michigan shot 50% from the field and 48% from 3-point range, making 13 triples while only needing to attempt 27.
The Wolverines dominated in nearly every aspect, including points off turnovers (14-8), total rebounds (46-32), bench points (33-6), points in the paint (34-20) and fastbreak points (19-7).
Yaxel Lendeborg, the UAB transfer who took offense to not being pursued by Alabama in the transfer portal, led Michigan with 23 points, 12 rebounds and 7 assists.
Andrew writes about sports to fund his love of live music and collection of concert posters. He strongly endorses the Hall of Fame campaigns of Fred Taylor and Andruw Jones.
